Connect with Us

Spartans set for Dino attack

A date with the Dinos stands in the way of the Trinity Western Spartans advancing to the Canada West final four championships.

The women’s volleyball team earned a split with the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton to finish the regular season with a 19-3 record and the second seed in the playoffs.

They host the Calgary Dinos (11-11) in a best-of-three quarter-final series tonight (Thursday), Feb. 15, and if necessary, Feb. 16 at the Langley Events Centre. The Spartans, ranked second in the country, went a perfect 11-0 at home.

TWU goes into the playoffs on a high winning in five sets on Saturday after dropping a four-set match to Alberta on Friday.

“It was a really exciting match and I thought the girls did a great job of rebounding from yesterday,” said coach Ryan Hofer.

A big key in the win was the play of setter Kelci French, who finished with 46 assists.

“Her locations and decisions really brought a lot to the floor and made the players around her better,” Hofer said.

“Alberta runs a solid offence with experienced attackers so it was important that our servers put pressure on them. Our middles also had a significant impact on the game.”

In Saturday’s five-setter, Alberta won the first and third sets 25-20 and 25-22 while the Spartans took sets two and four, 29-27 and 25-21, respectively. The decisive fifth set went in favour of the visitors 15-12.

Amber Brown and Carly Hamilton had 14 kills apiece while Amy Ott aded a dozen and Alician Perrin chipped in with 11. Hamilton and Brown were also lethal from the service line with five and four aces, respectively.

In Friday’s match, Alberta won 3-1 (25-16,26-24,20-25,25-16) to end the Spartans eight-game win streak.

•••••

The Spartans won both matches against Calgary during the regular season.

The matches are at 6 p.m. for games one and two, and if necessary, 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.

We encourage an open exchange of ideas on this story's topic, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. Personal attacks, inappropriate language, and off-topic comments may be removed, and comment privileges revoked, per our Terms of Use. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.